revenge
/ɹəˈvendʒ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.28 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any form of personal, retaliatory action against an individual, institution, or group for some alleged or perceived harm or injustice.
Uncountable
verb
To take revenge for (a particular harmful action) or on behalf of (its victim); to avenge.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Indifference is the sweetest revenge."
- "When I left my wife, she tried to set fire to the house in revenge."
- "After tearing his fave T-shirt unintentionally, my brother wreaked revenge on me by ripping my most prized blazer apart."
- "Liam Neeson has revealed that years ago he contemplated carrying out a racist revenge attack after someone close to him was raped."
- "“I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”."
- "CHAOTICA: Arachnia, death as you know it has no hold on me. My defeat is but a temporary setback. I shall return to seek my revenge. JANEWAY: He doesn't give up, does he? PARIS: They never do. CHAOTICA: Our love was not meant to be, my Queen. But be warned. You have not seen the last of (gurgle) Chaotica."
Etymology
From Middle French revenge, a derivation from revenger, from Old French revengier (possibly influenced by Old Occitan revènge (“revenge, comeback”), from Old Occitan revenir (“to come back”)), a variant of Middle French revancher (whence deverbal French revanche), from Old French revenchier. The variants Old French vengier (whence French venger) and Old French venchier are both descended from Latin vindicō, with stress-conditioned different parallel development in the inflectional forms. Doublet of revanche. Compare avenge and vengeance.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: revenge, revengier, revènge, vindicō, revengen
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹəˈvendʒ/